Archive for March, 2014

Laurel Park Elementary students learn music with technology. Teacher Jennifer Sonstroem uses the Yamaha Music in Education system with a computer that manages the music keyboards and shares designed lessons enhancing the Common Core Standards. All of Laurel Park’s nearly 1,000 students from Kindergarten through 5th grade learn with the music system. Sonstroem says the school community continues to provide the support that brought the system to her students. The school plans to hold a Creative Arts Nights on May 8 & 15 from 6 to 7:30 p.m.

Principals Barry Richburg and Chas Miller found a way to combine their humor, passion for education, and school spirit at Principal Dance-Off 2014, an event on March 27 to gather books for WAKE Up and Read. See the Facebook album. >>

Families streamed into Ligon Magnet Middle School for the event, the line wrapping around the school. They carried signs and wore shirts boasting their schools of choice. Continue Reading . . .

Students at Mary E. Phillips High School spent the day learning about health, exercise, positive attitudes and received a huge boost of motivation from the reigning Miss Black North Carolina USA, Yasten Burton. Ms. Burton shared stories of her pathway to success and her personal mission of H.O.P.E, ‘Helping Others to Pursue Excellence’, program.

It was all a part of the school’s first annual Multi-Cultural festival, designed to educate, motivate and inspire the 225 students at the school to believe in their own potential for success. The event was also organized to help students become more knowledgeable about their community and the resources available to them.

Some students attended workshops led by business leaders and entrepreneurs. Others learned the origins of quilting and got a lesson in science and technology with robotics. Continue Reading . . .

The Wake County Board of Education recognized 23 Wake County students as their school’s recipient of the Spotlight on Students award at the board meeting on Tuesday, March 25. The Spotlight on Students program has been a project of the Wake County Public School System since 1982. Continue Reading . . .

Two Wake County students recently joined thousands of others across the country putting their math skills to the test. Enloe High Freshmen Nikhil Reddy and Angela Deng each received perfect scores on the American Mathematics Contest (AMC) last month. They were the only public school students to receive a perfect score on the AMC 10 in North Carolina. Nikhil, Angela and 10 other students from Enloe High qualified to sit for the three-hour American Invitational Mathematics Exam.

For more than 60 years, students across the country have taken up the challenge of America’s longest-running and most prestigious math contests, The American Mathematics Competitions or the AMC. Every year, at thousands of schools in every state, more than 350,000 students are presented with a set of questions rich in content, designed to make them think. Continue Reading . . .

The first time Nia Faith Gray, 14, sang for her mother, she was so shy she had to put a sweater over her head and face the wall.

Through practice and performing in her church choir, Nia Faith has slowly become more comfortable singing for an audience. On April 9, she’ll face possibly her largest audience yet—a crowd at the historic Apollo Theater in New York.

Nia Faith, an 8th-grade student at the Wake Young Women’s Leadership Academy, will perform “Girl on Fire” by Alicia Keys on Amateur Night, competing against other contestants for a chance to reappear later in the season and win a $2,000 prize. Videos from the show will be posted on the Apollo website. Continue Reading . . .

After reviewing instructional hours required for students, the Wake County Public School System (WCPSS) is canceling the Track 1, 4, and single-track year-round makeup day that had been scheduled for Saturday, March 29. Instead, the district is extending the Early Release day on Friday, March 28, to a full day of instruction.

School bus service will be provided on Friday according to the usual schedule for a full instructional day.